Tom DeLay to Rick Perry: 'This is what they do'

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was feeling a bit of déjà vu on Monday after Texas Gov. Rick Perry was indicted by the same office that DeLay faced nine years ago.

“This is what they do, this is how they intimidate the elected officials in the state Legislature and the governor and around the state,” DeLay said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “If you say anything bad or against this office, they’ll go after you.”

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DeLay’s comments came after Perry was indicted on Friday on two felony charges — one count of abuse of official capacity and another for coercion of a public servant. The case stems from a dispute between Perry and Rosemary Lehmberg, the Travis County district attorney and head of the state’s Public Integrity Unit who was arrested for drunken driving in April 2013 and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. In the wake of that incident, Perry demanded that Lehmberg resign or he would veto funding for the Public Integrity Unit. When she refused to resign, Perry followed through with his threats with a line-item veto.

Nine years ago, the same unit had taken issue with DeLay and charged him with money laundering and conspiracy relating to his fundraising for the 2002 elections.

“For nine years I’ve been warning the Republicans that if they don’t reform this unit and put it on a statewide basis with the attorney general that they could be next, and here we go, Rick Perry was next,” DeLay said.

DeLay told the Fox News hosts that he had been “totally exonerated” last year but that he was still waiting for a ruling from the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Currently, the Travis County-based Public Integrity Unit is a local unit with statewide jurisdiction. Officials within the unit are elected on a local level that includes Austin and has the most solidly Democratic demographic in the state.

“I think it’s totally unconstitutional; a locally elected district attorney has statewide jurisdiction, and it needs to be changed,” DeLay said. “These people for 30 years have been doing this to their enemies.”